Director Christopher McQuarrie Had Considered De-aging Tom Cruise ‘Mission Impossible 7’

Director Christopher McQuarrie had almost considered de-aging Tom Cruise for one of the opening sequences of ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One’, in order to appear as his 1989 version of the franchise protagonist Ethan Hunt, however he ultimately decided against it arguing that the results of de-aging are very inconsistent.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, during an interview with GamesRadar+ and Total Film, director Christopher McQuarrie said that the creative team behind ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ had considered to de-age Tom Cruise for one of the opening scenes in the film.

“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” he explained. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.”

“One of the big things about (the de-aging) I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good.’ Never did I find myself actually following the story,” he said. “I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”

However, McQuarrie hasn’t ruled out using de-aging in the future and is looking to incorporate it into future projects once he is more certain about its outcome.

“In researching that (technology), I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it,” McQuarrie said. “By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never.”

Digital de-aging these days has become a common phenomenon in Hollywood, and it’s been done in various instances to make old actors appear younger. Some of these examples include Mark Hamill in ‘Mandalorian’, Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Captain Marvel’ and most recently, Harrison Ford for ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.’